Leading Off

COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY PHILIPPE MILLERREAU/D.P.P.I. Post Haste Lance Armstrong of the U.S. Postal Service team leans into a turn en route to winning the prologue to the Tour de France. Armstrong gave up the yellow jersey in Stage 1 but regained it in the Pyrenees last Thursday.COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY BILL FRAKES Passed Perfect Archie Manning and his sons, Eli (left) and Peyton, run through a drill at the Manning Passing Academy for high school players on the campus of Southeastern Louisiana.COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY NANCIE BATTAGLIA Dogleg Left Jerry, handled by Michael Wallace of Troy, N.Y., cleared 22'4" on this qualifying-round jump in the Big Air competition of the Great Outdoor Games. That leap put him into the finals, in which he came back to earth hard, finishing eighth.

Before he became the premier postseason performer of his generation, the Patriots icon was a middling college quarterback who invited skepticism, even scorn, from fans and his coaches. That was all—and that was everything